Essential Plot Points:

Picking up after the events of the previous crossover episodes, Nate, Mick, Amaya, Felicity and Cisco board the Waverider to travel back to Oregon, 1951, to the first Dominator invasion of Earth. Though the Legends are able to capture a Dominator in the hopes of getting information from it, they all end up captured by federal agents. The Legends are in custody with the Dominator and learn that the Dominators visited Earth to assess the threat level of humanity after metahumans arrived.

In 2016, the other team members learn that the Dominators have made a deal with a shifty government official that Barry would be surrendered over to them as a punishment for his changing of the timeline. Barry is prepared to give himself up.

After Cisco and Felicity rescue the Legends and all return together, the full team learn that the Dominators have a weapon that will act as a bomb to kill all metahumans and cause mass casualties too. The team refuses to let Barry sacrifice himself and band together to destroy the bomb and make the Dominators retreat with the help of pain-inflicting nanotechnology.

Finally, Cisco provides Supergirl with a device that will allow her to travel between hers and their universes at will should the need arise.

An additional subplot has Stein dealing with the conflicting emotions of suddenly having a daughter, Lily, thanks his own meddling with time. Initially he plans on erasing her by fixing the timeline, but by the end he confides in Jefferson that he’s changed his mind, and begs him not to tell the rest of the Legends about Lily.

Review:

In the concluding episode to the four-way CW DC crossover, the Legends band together with lead characters from Supergirl, The Flash and Arrow to stop the Dominators from destroying the Earth. In regards to how this episode stands up in its own regard as an episode of Legends Of Tomorrow, it’s a bit of a let-down.

As the show has a large ensemble cast and only approximately 43 minutes per episode, individual episodes can frequently leave certain lead characters out of the spotlight, though season two has been improving things a bit on that front, and more equally dividing the action. But with Invasion” , the best interactions were still largely reserved for lead characters from the other series while the Legends were often treated as secondary in comparison.

Stein’s daughter subplot was the only major plot point included that may have lasting impact on the stories for the Legends when the rest of these characters clear out.

The Good:

Cisco’s grief was dealt with in a way that The Flash would do well to learn from. He’s entirely justified in feelings anger and grief at the loss of his brother through Barry’s selfish actions. Legends Of Tomorrow has an ensemble cast as opposed to a singular lead so perhaps the writers on this series are more understanding of giving everyone their deserved moment.

With the fight sequences being larger than ever, the choreography and action was just as well-executed as ever.

The Bad:

This costume.

Now that the CW DC universe has done this four-way crossover, let’s hope it’s got it out of its system. Legends of Tomorrow particularly suffered, as its already large ensemble cast had to jostle for attention among all the extra characters, and its ongoing character development had to take a week off (Stein excepted). The episode felt way too busy.

And The Random:

It appears as if this secret between Stein and Jefferson about Stein’s daughter is being set up to be a source of tension and conflict for either their relationship or even the whole team’s dynamic.

Ray Palmer comments that Kara looks like a cousin of his. This is an in-joke referring to the fact that Brandon Routh played role as Superman (Kara’s cousin) in Superman Returns (2006).

After Felicity is disoriented by her trip in the Waverider and starts speaking gibberish, one things she says is “Darmok and Jelod at Tanagra”, which is a quote from an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation called “Darmok”.

A rather cheeky in-joke has Kara telling Oliver and Barry that their team is made up from “Earth’s mightiest heroes”, a description normally associated with Marvel’s superteam, the Avengers.